NEW  HOPE  FOR  POISON  VICTIMS ?

Campaigners at Downing Street in 2002

“The scandalous cover-up of Britain’s worst ever water poisoning incident is gradually unravelling” said former North Cornwall MP Paul Tyler, now Lord Tyler, today (Thursday).

“The publication of the Coroner’s statement this afternoon provides a direct and explicit link between the 1988 contamination of water supplies in North Cornwall and the onset of a form of Alzheimer’s Disease.  Previous scientific evidence of the probable connection between this aluminium poisoning and Alzheimer’s was never tested in Court, because the group action for damages was withdrawn in 1994 and derisory compensation payments made instead.”

“Inevitably, this investigation will be too late for some victims, and has been thwarted by inadequate medical records and lax monitoring of the 20,000 people, including many children, whose health may have been affected.   But better late than never.   The accident itself was a real disaster:  the subsequent cover-up was a scandal.”

“The Coroner’s conclusions today add substantially to the weight of evidence, and provide a devastating example of past failures.    However, at long last there is a real chance that justice will be seen to be done, and realistic compensation considered.”

End

Note for Editors:    20 tons of Aluminium Sulphate were accidentally tipped into the wrong tank at the Lowermoor Water Treatment Works, serving the town of Camelford and a wide area of North Cornwall, on 6 July 1988.    Many residents did not know of the contamination until complaints of possibly linked chronic ill-health surfaced.   Despite initial assurances that a Public Inquiry would be held, no full investigation has taken place until the current one initiated by Michael Meacher and Paul Tyler.